Transference
by Albion19
Summary: Bonnie tries to ease Tyler's transformation


The leaves had formed a clump at the bottom of the bottle, turning the water a murky green. Bonnie smirked at Tyler who stopped in the act of unscrewing it, looking up at her with surprise.

"I didn't think you'd be one for green tea."

He looked down at the bottle quickly and then back at her with a strange half smile. "Tea, yeah...it was Caroline's idea..."

He was sat at the a lunch table and Bonnie sat next to him. Her smirk faded when she got a good look at his face. He was thin, very pale and had a dark circles under his eyes.

"Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," Tyler shrugged, turning away but the hand on the bottle tightened into a fist. The full moon was only a day away she knew but she had no idea that it could have this effect him before hand. In fact she had never heard of it happening before.

She watched him closely as he took a swig from the bottle and grimaced, trying to force it down. Caroline had approached Bonnie some time ago to ask for some Monkshood plants but she had been in too much of a rush to explain why. Now it made sense.

"You really shouldn't drink it like that."

He still managed to give her a wry look with his face screwed up in disgust. "And I thought tea was good for you?"

"You know what I mean. That's wolfsbane." She thought for a moment he would play ignorant but he pinned her with an intense stare. Having a wolfish stare was a popular expression but it was a different matter when it was actually staring you in the face. Bonnie felt her stomach tighten.

"So what if it is?"

"You could make yourself sick. Scratch that you look sick already! You should only take it at the right time." She empathised the last two words and he suddenly leaned close. He looked confused and angry.

"You know?"

"Yes. The wolfsbane that you're drinking is mine. If I knew that you would be doing this with it wouldn't have handed it over." She knew this was the wrong thing to say when he suddenly got to his feet, growling something under his breath. Bonnie followed him, grimacing. "Wait! I'm sorry."

He turned on her but had enough control to keep his voice down. "I don't know how you know but what I do is really no concern of yours." He exhaled a long breath, calming himself. "Look, we've known each other a long time and we've always gotten on ok so I don't want you to take this the wrong way."

Bonnie nodded, holding her thumb and index finger apart. "You've only been a little bit of a dick to me." It was true. He had always been a bully and arrogant but he had always been kind to her, in his gruff way. Tyler smiled and rolled his eyes. Bonnie talked softly, earnest. "Why are you drinking it?"

"I'm trying to get accustomed to it. Before I'd drink it so I'd be weak but my body would just reject it. Maybe this time it will be different." As he talked he kept his gaze focused over her head, anywhere but at her pitying eyes. As she touched his hand he looked down at her, unable to look away.

"I can help you."

"Really? Maybe you could add some sweeteners to it." He shook the bottle at her and Bonnie took it from him, shaking her head.

"No I mean _help_." He incline her head, eyes focused on his but he wasn't following her.

_He doesn't know._

"Looks like I've got a secret to share with you to." Bonnie sighed and taking his arm drew him from the school.

* * *

><p>He had laughed, of course, when she told him but it had been one of amazement. A year ago he would have called her crazy and likely would have made fun of her at school. But a lot has happened in a year, to all of them.<p>

"Maybe Jeremy will turn out to be a fairy next."

"You'd love that."

They were sat on the tumbled down stones that thrust up from the forest floor. All that remained of the old Lockwood house. The Grimoire was open across Bonnie's lap, Tyler at her side. He was uncomfortable but open to listen to her.

He had explained the process of what happens to him, the measures he puts in place to maintain that no one would get hurt.

"Except for you." Bonnie had to swallow the horror and with it the rush of sympathy she had experienced when he told her of the pain he had to endure. The flat tone of his voice pointed to a man that did not want her comfort but it was hard to hold back. She would find another way to help him.

"Wolfsbane doesn't stop the pain, we both know that. I think there is a way to lessen what you have to go through." She spoke carefully, wanting him to know it wasn't a definite certainty. Still the hope that shone in his eyes was painful.

"You can make the pain go away?"

"No, pain doesn't disappear. You can only numb it. Or in this case, transfer it."

"Transfer it?" He straightened but his gaze darkened. "I don't like he sound of that."

Bonnie nodded. "And you'd be right to. I've heard about people passing there sickness or ill fortune onto another. Their loneliness and depression. Their pain."

"I wouldn't wish this on anyone."

"Not even a vampire?"

That gave him pause. He stood still, staring down at her with eyes that suddenly shone gold. She knew at that moment he was thinking of his dead uncle and the vampire that killed him.

_But not the one that helped make it happen. _Bonnie clapped down on that stray dark thought hard, pushing it down. She wanted him to say Damon just as much as she dreaded it. He deserved to die but did he deserved to be tortured?

_Mason didn't..._

Finally Tyler shook his head, his eyes normal but full of trouble. "No, there must be another way." Bonnie felt a shaky relief and a stab of disappointment. She lowered her gaze to the book to hide her conflicted face and turned the pages. She couldn't find exactly what she needed but she could cobble together separate spells. If this was successful she could enter her own spell into the book.

"Ok. So if I can't ease the pain maybe I can speed up the transformation? It will hurt but it will only last a few minutes instead of hours. How does that sound?"

"I'll tell you in the morning." He pulled her to her feet and stared into her eyes and then roved over the rest of her face. "You should have talked to me more at school...I hope Jeremy knows how lucky he is." He brushed past her ear as he whispered, making her hair flutter. Whether he meant for this to come out so seductive she had no idea and he gave no further indications of what he may be feeling. But it made her flush with heat anyway.

"I'm sure he does." The warmth within her faded, as did her smile.

* * *

><p>The moon was not yet at it's zenith but Tyler could feel it's approach. He stalked around Bonnie, around the mirrors that she had taken great pains to gather. Stefan would have given them over with no questions asked, but Stefan was gone so she and Tyler had to beg, borrow and steal.<p>

"My mom will go crazy if she finds out that I've taken these and she'll definitely kill me if I brake any of them. They're worth more then both of us put together."

"Well I'll try not to break them." They wouldn't have needed the mirrors if he would transform up here but he would have none of it. In chains, under the ground was where she would be safe from him. So instead the mirrors would be used to catch the moonlight and reflect it back to Tyler as he transforms. Direct moonlight would quicken the process but only so much, the magic would do the rest.

"I still don't see why you have to be here." He was irritable and quick to anger but also worried so Bonnie explained to him again softly.

"I need to cast the spell just as the moon hits the mirrors and I can't do that at home. I'll be fine, look," she pointed down at her feet to where she had been drawing a circle in the dirt, "I'm safe in the circle. Even if you get loose you can't hurt me."

"You better pray you're right or you better have a broomstick in that bag of yours."

"Haha." She gave him the potion she had been making and he sniffed it gingerly.

"Lemonade, wolfsbane?" Bonnie nodded and he sniffed again, frowning. "I dunno what else but that, that smells like...blood?"

"Just a drop. It's mine. The spell wouldn't have worked without it and it won't work without yours." She took his hand, lifting up a small sharp athame. He hissed when she pricked his thumb, letting a drop of blood fall into the drink. He sucked at it as she stirred, taking a small sip from the cup and then a larger swallow. She passed it over to him.

"The cook always tastes first, right? "He pulled a face but at her insistence downed the contents in one gulp. "Disgusting."

"Thanks. You better get down there, the moon is almost up."

"I know, I can feel her."

He inhaled, gave Bonnie a smile that made him look both very young but also weary and disappeared into the earth. 

* * *

><p>Once the moonlight struck the mirror and Bonnie had chanted the spell she had resolved not to get involved. He had told her no matter what she heard she had to stay away.<p>

How could she ignore this?

The screams began a minute after the moonlight had shone into his little prison and hadn't stopped.

"Seven minutes." she whispered to herself in a voice that shook, "seven minutes." But as time ticked slowly on and three minutes past Bonnie found herself on her knees, tears blinding her eyes. He was begging for it to end, calling out for his mother, his father. That was the worst and no matter what she did she couldn't make the torment go away.

_You can_. The voice was soft, old and full of secrets. It was Bonnie and it was not. It was aloof but also hard as stone. It was a dark mercy. It was power.

Sobs racking through her burning body she took what she needed from her pocket with shaking fingers and with a hitching breath said the spell. As the single strand of hair shrivelled and burned away the screams from bellow grew into sobs and then finally into the whimpers of a tired, hurt animal. Exhausted, unable to stand and with a trickle of blood running from her nose Bonnie breathed a sigh of relief as the pain faded away from her ears and her senses.

_He only has to endure two minutes of it. It's a drop in the ocean compared to what the vampire should suffer._

The hazy thought was the last she remembered as she slumped to the floor, unconscious. 

* * *

><p>The chains hold the man, not the wolf and he slips from them easily. Where once he looked and smelt through the last drags of pain now there is a sense of peace. Drained, yes but as he sniffed at the damp ground and caught the scent of blood on the air he had never felt so free.<p>

He was thin and did not have gnaw at the iron bars that kept him prisoner. A voice in the deeper part of him whispered that he had been sick, lost weight but that meant nothing to the wolf.

Blood was above and he drew back his teeth, looping up the steps until he reached the trees and wind. The moon was fat and bright and his tail wagged, thumping the earth. Then he cocked his head, curious.

Another wolf was before him, growling as he was growling, baring teeth in the same manner. He darted forward and crashed into the mirror, bashing his snout with a yelp. Whimpering he sniffed the surface and tentatively touched his reflection with a paw. Excited he jumped back and that was when he saw the human on the ground.

No, something else. Female, familiar. Something bared his way, something pushed at him and had a wrong smell. He sniffed around her until he came to her hand lying outside the wall that stopped him. He sniffed and smelt her blood and also _his_blood.

_She's part of the pack. _The man voice insisted and even if she smelt wrong it was right.

He licked at her wrist before bounding away, only to find another wall circling him, keeping him from venturing further. Still he would hunt and feed and when he was finished he would lie next to his familiar female and sleep.

* * *

><p><em>Coda<em>

The mirrors reflected the morning sun and trees and a sleeping witch and werewolf.

Bonnie woke to find a naked Tyler sleeping outside the circle protecting her, cheek nuzzled against her hand. She withdrew it with a gasp, trying not to focus on anything below his neck.


End file.
